How does TWC determine which cities get HD, channels, etc.? Is it based by popularity?

A lot of it depends on where the contracts are negotiated. Some contracts exist from former companies Time Warner Cable purchased, some were signed at a regional level, some were signed at a national level. While sometimes popularity could be a factor, it certainly is as to why some areas get certain channels and others don't. Bandwidth can also be a factor in decisions regarding HD channels. For years, TWC Southern California lagged behind other TWC regions (and still does on premium channels) because they had so many systems to integrate from things acquired from Adelphia, and also areas that were divested from Comcast. These areas all had wildly divergent channel numbers, packages and options. Some systems lacked capacity. As time has gone on, and those systems have become more similar, the offerings have improved relative to other TWC regions. Generally, the NYC division, the Northeast division that covers New England and Upstate NY, and TWC Carolinas are the leaders in HD content for the company. Everyone else gets things at a different pace.

Popularity certainly determines why Southern California has many international channels, and more rural areas in the mountain states have outdoor sporting channels not always carried in Southern California. To pick up on any regional differences in contracts, follow the twice monthly programming legal notices Time Warner Cable posts. These will show what contracts are up, and if there's anything not for all TWC regions. I would think now that most of the Southern California market is all-digital that any holes of HD programming would be filled as contracts are renewed.

A lot of it depends on where the contracts are negotiated. Some contracts exist from former companies Time Warner Cable purchased, some were signed at a regional level, some were signed at a national level. While sometimes popularity could be a factor, it certainly is as to why some areas get certain channels and others don't. Bandwidth can also be a factor in decisions regarding HD channels. For years, TWC Southern California lagged behind other TWC regions (and still does on premium channels) because they had so many systems to integrate from things acquired from Adelphia, and also areas that were divested from Comcast. These areas all had wildly divergent channel numbers, packages and options. Some systems lacked capacity. As time has gone on, and those systems have become more similar, the offerings have improved relative to other TWC regions. Generally, the NYC division, the Northeast division that covers New England and Upstate NY, and TWC Carolinas are the leaders in HD content for the company. Everyone else gets things at a different pace.

Popularity certainly determines why Southern California has many international channels, and more rural areas in the mountain states have outdoor sporting channels not always carried in Southern California. To pick up on any regional differences in contracts, follow the twice monthly programming legal notices Time Warner Cable posts. These will show what contracts are up, and if there's anything not for all TWC regions. I would think now that most of the Southern California market is all-digital that any holes of HD programming would be filled as contracts are renewed.

A lot of it depends on where the contracts are negotiated. Some contracts exist from former companies Time Warner Cable purchased, some were signed at a regional level, some were signed at a national level. While sometimes popularity could be a factor, it certainly is as to why some areas get certain channels and others don't. Bandwidth can also be a factor in decisions regarding HD channels. For years, TWC Southern California lagged behind other TWC regions (and still does on premium channels) because they had so many systems to integrate from things acquired from Adelphia, and also areas that were divested from Comcast. These areas all had wildly divergent channel numbers, packages and options. Some systems lacked capacity. As time has gone on, and those systems have become more similar, the offerings have improved relative to other TWC regions. Generally, the NYC division, the Northeast division that covers New England and Upstate NY, and TWC Carolinas are the leaders in HD content for the company. Everyone else gets things at a different pace.

Popularity certainly determines why Southern California has many international channels, and more rural areas in the mountain states have outdoor sporting channels not always carried in Southern California. To pick up on any regional differences in contracts, follow the twice monthly programming legal notices Time Warner Cable posts. These will show what contracts are up, and if there's anything not for all TWC regions. I would think now that most of the Southern California market is all-digital that any holes of HD programming would be filled as contracts are renewed.

A lot of it depends on where the contracts are negotiated. Some contracts exist from former companies Time Warner Cable purchased, some were signed at a regional level, some were signed at a national level. While sometimes popularity could be a factor, it certainly is as to why some areas get certain channels and others don't. Bandwidth can also be a factor in decisions regarding HD channels. For years, TWC Southern California lagged behind other TWC regions (and still does on premium channels) because they had so many systems to integrate from things acquired from Adelphia, and also areas that were divested from Comcast. These areas all had wildly divergent channel numbers, packages and options. Some systems lacked capacity. As time has gone on, and those systems have become more similar, the offerings have improved relative to other TWC regions. Generally, the NYC division, the Northeast division that covers New England and Upstate NY, and TWC Carolinas are the leaders in HD content for the company. Everyone else gets things at a different pace.

Popularity certainly determines why Southern California has many international channels, and more rural areas in the mountain states have outdoor sporting channels not always carried in Southern California. To pick up on any regional differences in contracts, follow the twice monthly programming legal notices Time Warner Cable posts. These will show what contracts are up, and if there's anything not for all TWC regions. I would think now that most of the Southern California market is all-digital that any holes of HD programming would be filled as contracts are renewed.

To show it's not just SoCal missing out, NYC is missing FXM HD that is carried throughout SoCal.

Thanks. That is quite frustrating too like not all channels are in HD like NBA Pass League, HBO, Cinemax, etc. I wonder how this will be imacted with Comcast's take over if FCC allows it.

If Comcast gets control of it, and the programming contracts become theirs, the effects will not be good.

Comcast in many places dropped a significant number of HD premium channels, getting down to just the main channel. They don't carry any more than 2 game feeds and 1 team feed in HD, and in many markets, they don't even carry that.

And even at their worst, Time Warner has more HD channels than Comcast. Yes, a few different ones, but there's nothing Comcast has that TWC doesn't have. There's tons of things TWC has somewhere that Comcast doesn't.

If Comcast gets control of it, and the programming contracts become theirs, the effects will not be good.

Comcast in many places dropped a significant number of HD premium channels, getting down to just the main channel. They don't carry any more than 2 game feeds and 1 team feed in HD, and in many markets, they don't even carry that.

And even at their worst, Time Warner has more HD channels than Comcast. Yes, a few different ones, but there's nothing Comcast has that TWC doesn't have. There's tons of things TWC has somewhere that Comcast doesn't.

From what I hear Comcast doesn't use switched digital video. So do you think when Comcast takes over we can expect to see some HD channels moved back to SD?

From what I hear Comcast doesn't use switched digital video. So do you think when Comcast takes over we can expect to see some HD channels moved back to SD?

Assuming the merger will be approved, there will be little to no change initially. It will all be cosmetic at first; logos on uniforms and trucks, greeting when phone is answered, logo on paper bills, etc. Probably unlikely that SDV be removed all together since TWC has SDV implemented in most or all of their systems especially the major markets. It will be some time before a legacy Comcast system and legacy TWC system have identical offerings (lineups, equipment, pricing)

Oh, please. The issue with sports is the fight about whether to make it part of the basic cable package, or (much more fairly) make it an optional tier and have only those interested pay for it. The L.A. Dodgers are a prime example. I don't give a crap about the Dodgers, or baseball for that matter. Or the Lakers, or basketball. Yet I'm paying an extra amount monthly for the ridiculous deal TW made with the teams for exclusive coverage.

How in HELL is that reasonable? Why should I have to pay so Dodger fans who want the games have to pay less? ALL sports packages should be on an individual tier, and if you want to see Dodger games PAY THE DAMN MONTHLY FEE. Do it that way, and we'll find out in very short order whether TW was insane to make the deal. This is the sort of utter stupidity that will eventually drive the cablecos out of the video delivery business.

Here's the entire justification for charging every subscriber for a sports package: ZERO.

As they used to say on AOL, +1000!Just got my cable bill with the new Jock Tax. One more incentive to cut the cord.
One more thing I noticed, sometime in the last two years they sneakily combined the Variety tiers into one called Preferred (not yet called that on the bill) and demoted a few channels into the Standard package just to keep their Three Card Monty pricing going. Ever notice that the web site can show channel guides by zip code but NOT accurate pricing?
Unfortunately, we will have to wait for more cable channel owners to have alternate distribution (Hulu Plus, etc) before the CableCos give us smaller channel tiers.

From all the public negotiating going on, it is obvious that both sides have to agree to tier placement and price before a channel becomes live on a pay tv provider. I suspect that probably even minor details like the channel number must be agreed upon as well.

Thing is that channels are concentrated among only a few owners. Owners leverage popular channels to get their new or less-popular sister stations onto the most popular tiers. Similarly, the most watched networks can pretty much dictate where they will end up. Ultimatum in this case is either show up on every home using the pay-tv provider or none at all.

Point being something like a sports channel being on Basic/Standard or a channel being "demoted" to Standard is not some random act. They were all the result of negotiated contractual terms.

Point being something like a sports channel being on Basic/Standard or a channel being "demoted" to Standard is not some random act. They were all the result of negotiated contractual terms.

And that's how we lost HDNET and HDNET Movies. Mark wanted the channel as standard and TWC wanted them as HD tier or some other add on tier. Also Mark didn't want them copy protected.
Net result, TWC dropped the channels.

Before, I never cared about HDNet or as it is now called: AXS TV. Now, I would not mind having it just to see New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Of course, that is another reason why there are so many channels. Instead of being on an existing channel that has little content to begin with, everybody wants to be the big fish and go somewhere else.

Still no WGN in SPas/San Marino, although today was supposed to be the day--maybe. The language on the programming alerts was always couched as "may be added." Who knows? It doesn't make sense to me as far as what is going on with WGN, although Tivo says that WGN is scheduled to be here right now in SD only.

Recheck the notice, it says "on or around February 27, 2015." I suggest we're still in the "around" period.

Check again on Monday.

Possibly, but they have said "on or around" Jan. 1, then Jan. 31, then Feb. 27. And the language has always been "may be" not "will be." I think that they are just not being up front about this station. That is why people don't like Time Warner. On this and many other things they are about as clear as mud. And they keep raising the rates.

Possibly, but they have said "on or around" Jan. 1, then Jan. 31, then Feb. 27. And the language has always been "may be" not "will be." I think that they are just not being up front about this station. That is why people don't like Time Warner. On this and many other things they are about as clear as mud. And they keep raising the rates.

Cable operators are required to print these notices in advance, even when they think things might not happen for some reason that they need not disclose. That's why the "may be" language. They are being very up front about the situation by not definitely promising you anything. Very clear that MAY is not WILL. And yes, gas goes up, too.